"A baby, a manger, a bright and shining star; A shepherd, an angel, three kings from afar; A savior, a promise from heaven above--

--The Story of Christmas is filled with God's love."

I know it's easy to get caught up with everything involved in Christmas...decorating, buying presents, receiving presents, making goodies, eating yummy food, etc., that the real reason for the season gets a little bit pushed aside. So I just want to take a minute to show my appreciation for the real reason, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the coming of Christ to this earth and for His sacrifice so we could one day return to our Heavenly Father. I know that without Him we would not be able to do that.

I'm so happy Heavenly Father has given me such a wonderful family and that we are able to be together forever. I am so glad that we were able to spend the holiday with family and celebrate this wonderful season together. I love my family very much and love my Savior and everything He has done for me. I know that He has blessed me greatly in my life and that I will never be able to repay Him for the wonderful things and wonderful people I have in my life.

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone! I hope you have been able to take some time and think on the blessings that Christ has given you in your lives during this Christmas season.

"When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels."

Lately I've been doing more with my photography and thinking about more ways to improve my skills. So I did Sierra's wedding and this past week I was able to take some pictures of my friend Stephanie's three week old little girl, Maci, who is SOOOO cute! I had fun taking her pictures and playing with such a cute, little newborn again.

I wasn't really able to try taking pics of Evelyn cuz she was always active and not nearly as sleepy, newborn like Maci was. She was so much easier to take pictures of and I got some darn cute ones! So here's a little sampling of what I did and some that I edited using my new Photoshop that I got for Christmas! I'm having fun learning new ways to play with my pictures.

These first few are ones that I took with my Canon Rebel, which I'm HOPEFULLY getting the digital version next year and am WAAAAY excited for it!!! I've been wanting it for YEARS.












These next ones here were taken with my little Canon Powershot SX120, which I love as well. It does so great for just a little Powershot.

You better watch out, You better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town.

Saturday night we went to our Ward Christmas Party and a certain guy in a big red suit showed up! They had all the kids sit on the stage and sing "Here Comes Santa Claus" and then opened up the curtain at the end and there was Santa! Evelyn turned around.....



and was like...now way.


Then we stood in line and waited to see Santa. She was pretty fine while we waited but was getting a bit tired so by the time we got up to him she was a bit cranky. The second I started walking up to him she started screamin' and cryin' and wouldn't go near him. Mark had the camera though and only took one picture.



This was the closest she would get to Santa, and that's because he gave her a piece of candy! It was SOOOO funny! She was so upset.



Now maybe if we had gone to see Dora or something she'd be a little more excited.....




We were trying to get her ready for bed but she got too excited cuz she saw Dora on the screen...it was SOOO funny! Quite the figure huh? :) Such a silly girl! She freaks out at the store whenever she sees something with Dora on it. Good thing Blue's Clues isn't in stores anymore... :)

"I figured if I was going to make the world a better place, I'd do it with cookies." --Ana Pascal, "Stranger than Fiction"--

So pretty much everyone who knows me, knows that I have some awesome cookie recipes, one that I'm known for in particular is my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which are truly AMAZING! I have friends who love them so much that I mailed them from Utah to Missouri for their birthday :)

Anywho, I love the taste, thickness, texture, and overall yumminess of them which you don't always get in regular chocolate chip cookies, which often turn out thin and not as soft, well the ones I've tried before anyway. So I've been on the look out for an awesome regular choc. chip cookie and I think I've found it! I made them last month and they turned out pretty good but then I made them this week and they were PERFECT! Perfect thickness, perfect texture, soft, yet chewy....yum!!! Seriously perfection. I probably won't get them to come out as perfect again but it's still a great recipe! (I found it on allrecipes.com btw).

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, soft
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I like to use dark chocolate but that's my preference :)

**Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
**Cream together butter and sugars til smooth.
**Beat in eggs and vanilla.
**Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with the salt.
**Stir in flour and chocolate chips.
**Drop on ungreased pan and bake 10-12 minutes.


And here's a pic for the day! Evelyn is such a ham!!!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Thy leaves are so unchanging

This year we finally got our own Christmas tree! I've been very excited cuz it's the first year I've decorated pretty much at all since we've been married. The first year we had little room, the second year we moved and this year we finally are in one place and have room! I re-decorated my wreath to make it more Christmasy, bought stockings and put them up (I want to try to put our names on them somehow but haven't figured out what to do yet), put our awesome nativity up (thanks Whit!!!), and then got a Christmas tree!

I've had our ornaments for weeks now and am so excited to have it all up and decorated! I got some glittery snowflakes and balls, lights, and then we went outside and got a bunch of pine cones, sprayed them with fake now and put a silver glitter on the tips, which turned out really cute! Then we have an ornament for each Christmas we've been married, the first year Michael and Jessica got us a cute little gingerbread house, the second year we have three little people in a sled, and this year we got a tree since its our first year to have one.

The past couple nights Mark had night shifts so I've spent my alone time (after Evelyn went to bed) scrapbooking, reading, and watching movies with the nice glow of my Christmas tree! I love sitting in the living room with just the tree lit. So homey and relaxing!